Oils in our flavours.

[Ripshod]

I'm not scaremongering, I just think peeps should know what's in their favourite juices.

I published my recipe for Pernod & Lemonade on here recently. One of the moderators pointed out that lemon oil is not something she'd like to vape. On hearing that I did the responsible thing and asked for the topic to be removed.

This also made me investigate oils used in other flavours, and believe me there's loads. I can 100% confirm right now that citrus flavours from Inawera are based on citrus oils. Not slating them, most other manufacturers use oil bases too.

The issue is terpenes, in the case of citrus it's limonene. To quote Wikipedia:

Terpenes and terpenoids are the primary constituents of the essential oils of many types of plants and flowers. Essential oils are used widely as natural flavor additives for food, as fragrances in perfumery, and in traditional and alternative medicines such as aromatherapy. Synthetic variations and derivatives of natural terpenes and terpenoids also greatly expand the variety of aromas used in perfumery and flavors used in food additives. Vitamin A is a terpene.

Right, the shocking bit. A little list of oils used in our flavours:

Allspice Extract, Oleoresin, and Oil
Almond Bitter Oil
Amyris Oil
Angelica Root Extract, Oil and Seed Oil
Anise Star, Extract and Oils
Asafetida Fluid Extract And Oil
Balsam Peru and Oil
Basil Oil
Bay leaf, Oil and Sweet Oil
Bergamot Oil
Buchu Leaf Oil
Butter, Butter Esters, and Butter Oil
Cananga Oil
Caraway Oil
Cardamom Oleoresin, Extract, Seed Oil, and Powder
Carrot Oil
Cascarilla Oil and Bark Extract
Cassia Bark Oil
Cassie Absolute and Oil
Cedar Leaf Oil
Cedarwood Oil Terpenes and Virginiana
Celery Seed Extract, Solid, Oil, And Oleoresin
Chamomile Flower Oil And Extract
Cinnamon Leaf Oil, Bark Oil, and Extract
Citronella Oil
Clary Oil
Coconut Oil
Cognac White and Green Oil
Copaiba Oil
Coriander Extract and Oil
Corn Oil
Costus Root Oil
Cubeb Oil
Davana Oil
Dill Seed Oil and Extract
Fennel Sweet Oil
Galbanum Oil
Geranium Rose Oil
Ginger Oil and Oleoresin
Guaiac Wood Oil
Hops Oil
Hyssop Oil
Jasmine Absolute, Concrete and Oil
Lavandin Oil
Lavender oil
Lemon Oil and Extract
Lemongrass Oil
Lime Oil
Lovage Oil And Extract
Mandarin Oil
Myrrh Oil
Neroli Bigarde Oil
Nutmeg Powder and Oil
Oak chips extract and oil
Olibanum oil
Opoponax oil and gum
Orange oil and extract
Origanum oil
Orris concrete oil and root extract
Palmarosa Oil
Parsley Seed Oil
Patchouli Oil
Pepper Oil, Black And White
Peppermint Oil
Peruvian (Bois De Rose) Oil
Petitgrain Absolute, Mandarin Oil and Terpeneless Oil
Pimenta Leaf Oil
Pine Needle Oil, Pine Oil, Scotch
Rose Absolute and Oil
Rosemary Oil
Sage, Sage oil, and Sage oleoresin
Sandalwood oil, yellow
Snakeroot oil
Spearmint oil
Styrax extract, gum and oil
Tagetes Oil
Thyme Oil, White and Red
Valerian Root Extract, Oil and Powder
Vetiver Oil

I personally have been vaping Anise Oil since day one. More recently I've added Lemon Oil to my mix. No bad reactions, no heavy chest. I feel completely normal. But then, what is normal?? lol

Don't be scared by all this. Because they are the pure essences from the plants they are used in tiny amounts, but extreme care (in my opinion) should be exercised when handling the pure oils, gloves as a minimum. Most of you will never come into contact with these pure oils, most of the time it'll be heavily diluted in your flavour/juice.

I'm not trying to scare, I just believe you should know, and have the ability to choose whether you use these flavours or not.

Even if there's no ingredients listed on a lot of the final products, the end user has the RIGHT to know what's being inhaled into their lungs.

I'm gonna keep vaping my Pernod & Lemonade, because that's MY choice.

[toots]

that's a loooooong list

I was of the opinion that there were NO oils in our flavourings by reputable companies that we use. I think most of us were/are of that opinion.

Anyone else have any input here  ???

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

I recently bought online a liquid called ice mint which is made by a company called feel life, when it arrived I saw that on the box it lists the ingredients which include Orange oil, nutmeg oil and ginger oil !

It also says "In a fire or if heated a pressure increase will occur and may cause danger" I presume that means whilst it is still in the bottle ! ???

Edited to add

This is not a concentrate its a ready made eliquid.

[dragon]

Essential oil is a misleading term. It refers to essences extracted from plants. Some of them are true oils, but some are not.

If you are at all worried drip some of your flavour into a bowl of water and swirl it around, if it lies on the surface then it is likely to contain oil. Be careful with flavours that are alcohol based as that can allow oil to dissolve in water.

[jackcustard]

Im confused!

[Ripshod]

May 19, 2014 12:40:59 GMT dragon said:

Essential oil is a misleading term. It refers to essences extracted from plants. Some of them are true oils, but some are not.

If you are at all worried drip some of your flavour into a bowl of water and swirl it around, if it lies on the surface then it is likely to contain oil. Be careful with flavours that are alcohol based as that can allow oil to dissolve in water.

Darn good point. All those I listed, wheteher true oils or not, do contain terpenes/terpenoids. These are 100% safe when ingested with food, but noone wants these in their lungs. The fact that Vitamin A showed up in my research (so far) was a surprise, til I read about Vitamin A overdose - nasty!!

In the right place - good.
In our lungs - up to you to decide.

Has the fact that a lot of manufacturers don't give the ingredients made us ignorant??

[enjay]

Well as long as they don't contain lipoid oil, then you're vaping baby oil!

[Jen]

After my Solubarome saga, I quite agree - ingredients should be listed, informed consent is key. I personally will be sticking to berry fruit flavours from now on, they seem to be the safest option until someone tells me otherwise. Whilst the safety of PG/VG and nic is fairly well documented, the flavours are the last variable, and my, they can vary. Much more research is required and we may indeed find our pool of potential flavourings dries up quite a bit. Don't even get me started on acetoin...

[Ripshod]

May 19, 2014 12:17:31 GMT Phoenixflame (Julie) said:

I recently bought online a liquid called ice mint which is made by a company called feel life, when it arrived I saw that on the box it lists the ingredients which include Orange oil, nutmeg oil and ginger oil !

It also says "In a fire or if heated a pressure increase will occur and may cause danger" I presume that means whilst it is still in the bottle ! ???

Edited to add

This is not a concentrate its a ready made eliquid.

Yh, almost missed this. Heat eliquids in a bottle (enclosed) and the pressure will eventually burst the bottle. I don't think having the heated content sprayed on your skin would be anything less than painful. Downright dangerous in your eyes. The boiling point of glycerin (VG) is somewhere around 290°C, and it burns @ 204°C so it'll probably burn you like hot oil would. PG boils at 188°C.

[tomj777]

I'm all for safety and the more I learn the better - informed choice -is better than either no choice or unfounded assumptions every time.
It does, however, occur to me that the whole `breathing it into our lungs thing` is superfluous, which further mitigates risk. I've used my awareness of this to consciously hold the vapour in my mouth and throat, rather than inhaling (obviously some will be regardless). Thoughts?

[enjay]

I can confirm that hot ejuice does burn but so far it's not been any worse than when I've been welding a rusty old car lol. It can spit out the air holes of some drippers

[Ripshod]

If you buy essences, as I did buying lemon essence from Tesco, you're likely to find they are just oils in a solvent. In the case of my 'Lemon Essence' it was 85% alcohol, 10% lemon oil and water. PG is often used as a solvent too. The same with the flavours we buy for vaping (essentially an essence, pun intended)

Essences/flavours do readily combine with water when the actual oil won't, because of this solvent.

Therefore, testing an 'essence' or a flavour in water is not valid. The oil must be extracted from the solvent first.

[Ripshod]

May 19, 2014 15:37:35 GMT tomj777 said:

I'm all for safety and the more I learn the better - informed choice -is better than either no choice or unfounded assumptions every time.
It does, however, occur to me that the whole `breathing it into our lungs thing` is superfluous, which further mitigates risk. I've used my awareness of this to consciously hold the vapour in my mouth and throat, rather than inhaling (obviously some will be regardless). Thoughts?

I was sure someone would take up on this point.

We have total freedom of choice. By not actually inhaling, these oils will never see your lungs. They'll stay where it matters, in the mouth.

Personally?? Considering what I've been putting in my lungs for the last 34 years I'm not overly concerned about what I'm doing now. If I was I'd go flavourless. Another point that brings up is artificial flavours. Does anyone know yet what vaping synthetic flavours will do?

These are the reasons I actually look forward to some sort of regulation. I don't want BT getting their hands on my life again, and I certainly don't want to see vaping taxed out of (public) existence. BUT, I don't mind if they want to investigate the flavours we are using, for all the reasons above.